with a look back at the past week's top stories and the latest developments this is r.t. in moscow reports of a tracer bullets and explosions over the libyan capital have caused many to believe it's the beginning of the end for colonel gadhafi stronghold rebel commanders rushed to declare zero hour has begun and their forces inside tripoli have started the final uprising but some eyewitnesses claim the bangs being heard a celebratory fire works after government forces repelled an attack independent journalist. reports could be nato's way of creating panic. the gun fire and fire what's that happening and it's gunfire by what it's celebrates every gun fire and as a result of the. emergence of rebels in the city.

of gangs as the libyan government are calling them. that have now been cleared out of the city and they've now been captured and every state and essentially dealt with gunfire that we're hearing is celebrated become finding any explosions that way hearing nato airstrikes when they sound bombs which are clearly designed to create a sense of panic in the capital city of tripoli now what we're hearing that happens idea today is that the. rebels in libya. channels they created some sake footage of themselves inside claiming that they were inside and tripoli this creates and of course the media then the mainstream media and the western media in particular to these reports which creates a sense of panic amongst the libyan people so they went inside. in fear and then a number of armed gangs and much which are essentially sleeper cells of rebels

inside inside the c.c. and began firing randomly and setting things on fire and threatening ordinary people that if they did not join them that they would be assassinated they then took the streets which were empty as i said because people were scared inside their homes which creates a sense that they were. in the process of capturing the city then what happens is that of course that many people in tripoli have been on by the government and so these people came out to defend the capital and then the government spokesman came out and insisted that the situation had being. had been brought under control and so as a result now in green square. compounds that masses have come out and because they feel safe again and as i said ben that's enough celebrate to be gunfire. going on in this money doesn't room who's in tripoli says some sporadic attacks may actually be happening but in his opinion they are part of psychological

. the main point of the attacks in tripoli which are sporadic is to break down the moral here and cause and in fact the media. now has been part of the information campaign they're talking about. the mainstream media would have to be involved i can tell you right now reuters put out a release that was widely quoted one foreign national was killed here few days ago when nato would be bombing civilian infrastructure and it didn't mention the city we need to structure i want to be quoted this for national was a security guard this was misinformation this was not correct. they have been fueling feeding this psychological war against this country. well later in the program here and he will be looking at another country where the arab spring has dragged its bloody heels almost into the. sea with the west and the mounting pressure on president assad for his crackdown against protesters but. many are

happy to see the government stop the demonstrators also. the crowds on the ground this is an exciting spectacle but that's not quite the emotion that's going through my mind at the moment because i'm about to see what happens inside the cockpit. some spectacular. the final day of the international air show. at all still to come this hour but first violence has flared again in the middle east with israel and gaza following at each other since thursday as it's called off its cease fire with the jewish state due to the continuing. palestinian lands more than ten people have been killed after three days of attacks on each side the israeli government is reported to be considering a possible ground offensive in gaza as israel's been gripped by massive social protests for a month now. many protesters believe the escalation of violence which could be used

to some. public discontent. thousands of people i'm locked in here in tel aviv hoping candles in memory of the victims of violent demonstrations are happening not only here in tel aviv but also in tucson and a number of other major cities around israel in stark contrast to the protests we've seen happening of the past month the mood here is very somber people are very serious and affected in terms of what the latest wave of violence is because now talking to protesters they say that they are not surprised by this recent spate of violence many telling me that they've been expecting at the same time they believe that the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and his government will use the latest conflict dawns as an excuse to bring people to speak it's a good look around here people are young many of them out in the desert and what's to happen they would be caught up to go to the front and fight people who have very strong in the same thing they all still going to be demanding issues of social justice they really are protecting. the living they're talking about education

they're talking about health services they talking about security people here saying that not only do they want these demands of great but they also want israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu to step down the on scene television. and of course we value your opinion on the events in the middle east go to a website where you can cost you'll vote on the reasons behind israel's attacks on gaza and looking at the screen so far we can see that forty two percent believe that these latest attacks are a way to sabotage the next months of the u.n. vote on palestinian statehood also see that the twenty seven percent saying it was an opportunity to provoke a response from the palestinians and the remainder of the violence and think israel is trying to divert attention from its domestic problems or that the attacks an act of defense and that israel simply wants to protect its own people could hear from the. four years in jail for riot status in

facebook british courts are coming down hard on the rioters who spread mayhem last week human rights groups are accusing judges of overreacting something ignored by prime minister david cameron who's determined to mend the country's broken society either bennett reports now from london. four years behind bars for the riot that didn't even happen jordan black sure and perry sutcliffe kenan were banged up for inciting disorder on facebook no one turned up after their invitation to riot which they later said was a drunken joke but now they face sentences even tougher than most looters and i worry is that it is an imbalance a four year sentence for example would normally be given to somebody for a previous bodily harm for holding someone up with a knife or even for. some form of sexual assault so it seems to me that that there is a danger that the courts are moving into disproportionate territory and that actually devalues our response to more serious crimes that governments encourage

courts to dish out harsh sentences by using the public disturbance as an aggravating factor it's meant this man anderson fernandez could even be sent to jail for theft of just two scoops of ice cream because like this one denying bail to most offenders and ignoring any claims of previous good character of the one thousand two hundred seventy seven people charged so far two thirds have been reminded in custody that's way up on last year's rate for serious crimes chris just ten percent some offenders even being made homeless is their punishment with local governments taking away their houses but many say this will simply cause more harm than good i think this is very unwise the move to remove people from housing interim move benefits because actually if we are seeing that some of the crime that we saw on the streets was an expression of people not feeling part to society not feeling part of our communities then these measures are actually going to push

people further away from society further away from our communities and far more likely to commit crime the facebook case is the first sign of the government's desire to crack down on social media sites like twitter were applauded by the west for mobilizing the masses in the arab world but they were also instrumental in the u.k. riots so now the prime minister wants it to stop. we are working with the police the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites or services when we know they are plotting violence disorder and criminality when social media fueled revolutions in egypt and she nice person called it democracy but now the shoe's on the other foot when troubles closer to home i'm very conscious. you know the. movement we would be the force to complete. the. country's.

prime minister says this is where britain fights back but its speed this fighting fire with fire could only fan the flames of civil disorder after bennett's artsy london. and new riots video has been released showing masked men reportedly shooting at a policeman you can log onto our website r t don't come to watch that video police said the incident took place during the august ninth riots in the city of birmingham with more than ten shots fired. this week saw another attempt in europe to try to stop the deepening debt crisis as the leaders of the strongest economies met in paris angela merkel and nicolas

sarkozy called for the creation of a central economic body which would ensure eurozone members take more responsibility for the meeting failed to calm global markets political analyst and author william and dol believes the proposed measures just create an illusion of stability because. i think the collective economic government that merkel and sarkozy are talking about is really a desperate pollute. ploy to try to create the illusion of stability where the underlined stability doesn't yet exist there is no political will not in germany nor in the rest of the eurozone countries for as surrendering national sovereignty to a collective entity that has any decision power so it's simply a shimmer that's been thrown out there to try to calm the markets the alternative really is is to get a stable export market relations i think above all with the russia of the central asian republics china and the rest of asia in the middle east and if that is

created then you can have a growth vector that leads you out of this debt impasse that the eurozone countries are in without that and so long as as the dollar system dominates international financial relations that moody's standard and poor's do the rating on sovereign debt for european union countries and that there is no independent european credit rating agency and there isn't is no. growth perspective only austerity there is no up to this crisis. the ratings agency standard and poor's is facing increasing scrutiny in the u.s. the justice department is looking into allegations dozens of mortgage bonds were improperly rated in the lead up to the crisis of two thousand and eight as m.p. is being questioned off to stripping the u.s. of its treasured aaa credit score two weeks ago noughties lower list of reports now and growing doubts about just how credible the credit rating agencies can be. breaking news the united states has just lost its top notch triple a credit rating

from it was the downgrade heard round the world in a strong reaction to the rating down on a haas gold and u.s. well it's dead standard and poor's took the u.s. from straight aaa student to one not below for the first time ever bad marks were handed down for the nation's debt and politicians inability to agree on reining it in the tea party downgrading a lot of it has to do with the failure of the present united states i think this is a tea party problem the greater in chief says the u.s. is becoming a bit more unpredictable in terms of the conduct proposed to some of the other governments that were a stoic response from the downgrade or that helped ratchet up that the yeah tricks of the debt ceiling debate with the help of the other ratings agencies of course stealing the show from bickering politicians with their eyes on the debt deal they may be missing really a larger concern because there is growing evidence today that the u.s. credit score is going to get hit now that the u.s.

has gotten hit just how much does s. and p's mark actually count well not much according to some like investor jim rogers but it's not because the country isn't broke america is going down the tubes where the largest debtor nation in the history of the world it's because of the source these late rating agencies have been wrong about nearly everything for the past ten or fifteen years don't pay any attention to them so just how does the report card stack up for the major ratings agencies themselves they are s. and p. moody's and fitch let's assess test one the mortgage crisis of two thousand and eight these are the same agencies that rated the toxic sub prime dead aaa so i mean how do we take them with any level of credibility after that. well let's see if they get any from tess to the too big to fail banks and insurers during the financial crisis they missed many of the big bankruptcies they gave high investment . to lehman to bear stearns right to the very end g.

they gave a aaa rating to tow almost the day of collapse good grades for firms that collapsed or were bailed out because of bad debt in fact the financial crisis inquiry commission said the three credit ratings agencies were key enablers of the financial meltdown and this brings us to test three ethics ratings agencies are paid by the investment firms they grade and moody's and s. and p. are publicly traded which means they may be more driven to increase profits for shareholders raising this debate right now you have the companies that are being judged paying the bill and i'm around doing a big job at berkshire but mr buffett also pointed out the market requires it because these ratings agencies has been around forever so they're in shrine by government regulations which oh yeah they have a stake in test for objectivity frank legislation the financial reform has restrictions on rating agencies and the rules that are yet to be written and they

care a huge deal about what those rules end up looking like saw it wouldn't surprise me if they were trying to curry favor with certain politicians in fact they've spent a combined total of one point seven six million dollars this year lobbying washington over the regulations which brings us full circle to the downgrade of u.s. credit the u.s. was downgraded by s. and p. because of government debt berm or the government ran up that debt in part because it bailed out the big banks and a.i.g. back in two thousand and eight remember the one saddled with all of those bad mortgage bonds which the ratings agencies graded triple a when in reality they were a d or an f which makes you wonder if the ratings agencies themselves deserve a downgrade lauren lester r.t. washington d.c. . is spread of the possibility of another recession in the u.s. the largest holder of american debt is feeling the pinch chinese stocks fell on friday and according to investment adviser producer washington's troubles are too big for his asian partner to ignore. china is extremely skeptical they must be very

worried if i was the biggest holder of u.s. treasuries i'd be worried too because the u.s. is in a terrible situation their budget deficit is piling out of control it's almost eight percent of g.d.p. the federal debt is now about ninety six percent of g.d.p. and politicians in washington don't have any will to get the house in order all they know is to prolong the problem to push the can down the road and as long as that is the case we are going to see severe pressure on the u.s. dollar the economy is in asia generally speaking are in a lot healthier state than they are in the us or in europe and when mr bernanke prints money this is the value of the u.s. dollar devalues the dollar and makes commodity prices go up and that causes inflationary headaches in asia.

this week. the u.s. and. russia refused to support the. promised reforms. while the. oppression. job is done the city liberated there is or in lease of the country has become good last syrian city and left after clearing all extremists struck have been terrorizing his citizens for weeks the military claim is that he's bandits blocked their rights put up barricades it became a city with a hiding we were just like hostages. soldiers of the syrian army i live in the city of their near the iraqi border. officials are saying operation is now over that the city has been freed from armed groups as you can see people are welcome in the

soldiers as the waiters patois tanks have been trying to make their way through jubilant crowds thousands of kilometers away in the white house a decision has already matured president bashar al assad is the one who's terrorizing the syrian people and that should and the transition to democracy in syria has begun and it's time for assad to get out of the way not everybody has agreed though moscow has insisted that assad should be given time to implement promised changes his recent decisions to release political prisoners repeal emergency law and allow peaceful demonstrations have indicated the right direction but external pressure could still bury a fragile transitional. reforms will give forces to syria it will make the country stronger but syria's enemies don't want syria to be strong america for instance they're sick and tired of

a strong syria and they want to weaken it they don't want reforms they need instability and chaos across the country is only supportable in their pressure works for it with contradictory reports about policemen and security officers killed across the country and the army is continuing crackdown on protesters despite president assad's pledges to the u.n. to stop military operations the syrian people no know longer. who to trust and want to believe. with a country at the crossroad again the on themselves with patience. syria . journalist neil clark says the west is not really interested in peace in syria he thinks all it wants is to gain influence in the region what us and its allies really want is regime change in syria and they're not really generally interested in terrible situation and having dialogue between both sides and that's the reason it's happening today because we have president assad said he was going to use my

party system in syria he said operations against your position. and you want to get sort of the u.s. saying well that's good that's a good move we get these things for you to step down and the great promise i break in those countries are really is it's foreign policy it's friending with iran has gotten russia and the aim of the game is to try to remove. another kind of regime in. syria that have a line and while syrians celebrate the oil sting of rebels from some parts of the country quite a different scenario is developing in egypt stay with us here in our next hour to see how those who fought for democracy have been treated and opposed. to. a spectacular show of death defying aerobatics performed by some of the world's finest aircraft well that's what schedule for the final day of the max international air show underway near moscow and it's been running all week as witness thousands of thrilled spectators multibillion dollar deals and

a whole host of planes maltese told botan ventured into one of them to see what it's like performing an airborne stunt. engine. instruments. runway check. and then it's takeoff for the russian aerobatics display team the as motorists their nine first class pilots have performed over two hundred times in the past nineteen years but they all had to start somewhere andre is training to join the team he thinks he's nearly good enough now but still remembers his first flight as a solo pilot. without any warning they told me i was going to do the next flight on my own i had no time to be scared there was no longer an instructor right back it was unforgettable takeoff you on your own controlling the plane then when you land you've done it. the as moves are always trying to hold them anew this they practice

most weekends thinking of new tricks and practicing old ones not good for me but then for the work of a doctor we come up with stunts and then research them but it often turns out the pins on the four nested of a russian came up with the loop and all the other stunts are based on the loop. however it always comes down to time in the air that even with years of flying and training experience between them it never becomes easy with a difficult smoke and when you leave the cockpit you can squeeze a gallon of sweat from your suit what your knees are shaking for because it's extremely different stressful and anywhere with fuel up with america so with that gut wrenching fare ringing in the mine is i was told it was mine for the crowds on the ground this is an exciting spectacle but that's not quite the emotion that's going through my mind at the moment because i'm about to see what happens from

inside the cockpit. we did the loop the loop all the planes just meet is a part. of. it. but when it came to the fountain i nearly blacked out. white faced but not defeated i returned to. the. thing. he. could. get a. kick. but i could also see some of the strains that go through. there there's no ticket than if you know he might be for the crowds but serial acrobatics aren't a show to the pilots it's always a difficult job that a terrorist. so next time you look up at those speeding planes spare

a thought for the pilot inside. from bottom to. and i'm all thrills to come as will be taking you live to the ashes from the day and you can also keep up to speed with max when i website auti dot com. hands. off approach. shape our future flights try our team types to the max air show. coming up to twenty eight minutes past the hour here in the russian capital a recap of the week's headlines for you in a few moments stay with us live here in moscow.

it came here dr swines policeman swines ministers why i just prayed that if you didn't find me if i could slip through the night that i would get my kids out of here because i knew that what was going to happen was that he was going to kill me many victims don't understand that domestic violence includes verbal abuse psychological abuse physical abuse and sexual abuse at least four million

women are affected by abuse every year those are my only two options that i saw at that moment either i'm going to kill him i'm in jail or he's going to kill it it seems. last time the close up team was in our movie where the gold rush still gets people hike up. this time far she goes to care of region. where the local government is giving power back to the people. where every offer will be adopted. more locals to. on our.

top stories now as libya's rebels. and explosions in tripoli signal. is approaching some reports suggest. plan to play in the city. in the middle east for fear. of the jewish state a new ground offensive. even just thought about taking. proportionate response simply fuel public discontent. but i'll be back with about fifteen minutes from now in the meantime hungary's new media law has created quite a stir in the e.u. with the setting up of a new government controlled authority and as he said.